The Water Cycle

Today's learning target: Describe how water moves through the stages of the water cycle.

Today in class: Students completed a short reading about one drop of water can move through the water cycle. After completing the reading and a short discussion, students began illustrating the water cycle. Check out one version @

http://cnobleza.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/watercycle2.gif

Practice: Complete water cycle drawing for tomorrow

It's raining, it's pouring

Sorry about the missing post from yesterday. Technology was slow at the middle school. I will blend yesterday and today together in this post.

Our learning target is...describe the different types of precipitation

Yesterday in class we read through an article related to how precipitation forms and the major five types (rain, hail, sleet, freezing rain, and snow). After the students read it, they wrote a response summarizing what they learned. Today in class, student's began drawing each of the forms of precipitation. The drawings needed to be in color and students needed to provide extreme details like temperatures and state of matter.

Practice: Complete precipitation drawing for Wednesday.

Cloud types

Today's learning target was...identify and describe the various types of clouds.

Our class began with a discussion related to the three major types of clouds (cirrus, cumulus, and stratus). Students then found similar chacteristics to learn certain prefixes used to describe clouds to even more detail (alto, cirro, strato, nimbus). We ended class with playing an identification game using multiple photgraphs of clouds.

Check out these two resources about clouds...

Cloud types: http://eo.ucar.edu/webweather/cloud3.html
Cloud matching game: http://www.eo.ucar.edu/webweather/cloudmatch.html

Practice: None!

Cloud Formation

Today's learning target was...explain how clouds are formed.

Our class started off with a discussion about the five steps that lead to the formation of a cloud. After our discussion, students began drawing the process of cloud formation.

Step 1: Sunlight warms the Earth's surface and water evaporates
Step 2: Warm, moist air build up near the Earth's surface
Step 3: Rising air current pull the warm, moist air into the atmosphere
Step 4: Warm, moist air keeps rising and eventually cools to it's dew point temperature.
Step 5: Water vapor condenses into liquid and attaches to tiny particles like dust.


Practice: Complete drawing for tomorrow

Cloudy day

Today's learning target was...organize clouds by certain characteristics.

In class today, we discussed the Analyzing Graph activity that we started yesterday. The second part of class students worked as a group to categorize photos of clouds based on how they look. Many students organized the clouds into groups with titles like puffy, stormy, and wispy. This is great! They are certainly on the right track. Tomorrow in class we will learn how clouds form and the three main types of clouds.

Practice: None

Putting it together

Today's learning target was...analyze a graph comparing air temperature, dew point temperature, and relative humidity.

Today in class, students worked on an activity comparing the previously listed humidity terms. This was a good exercise to see how these three terms are closely related.

Practice: Complete the graph activity for class tomorrow

Assessment day!

Today was a show-me-what-you-know kind of day. We began class with a quick review of major concepts before beginning our assessment. I also explained to students how they should never be hesitant to ask for clarification on a question. If they don't understand what the question is asking, I will re-word the question so they are able to understand it. Students also have the opportunity to ask for a 'hint'. With a hint, I will give them basic information that will hopefully lead them to the correct answer. The student will lose partial credit for that problem because they are showing me that they do not have a complete understanding of the concept.

No practice (homework) for the weekend!

Do the Dew...con't

Today's learning target was...the students will conduct an investigation to discover the dew point temperature (same as yesterday).

In class today...students showed relationships and connections between 12 vocabulary terms and phrases related to humidity. After a discussion, students copied down the concept map that I created. Check it out here. The second half of class we focused on completing the three trials for our Dew Point Temperature lab and began answering the discussion questions.

The big idea for today was focused around dew point temperature. Check out yesterday's (Oct 11) blog for more details.

Practice: Dew Point Temperature lab due Friday (students will have classtime tomorrow)
Humidity Assessment on Friday

Do the Dew!

Today's learning target was...the students will conduct an investigation to discover the dew point temperature.

In class today, we had a short reading reviewing the concepts of humidity. After the reading, we began our dew point temperature lab. Students used a tin can and ice to calculate the dew point temperature in the classroom. Tomorrow in class we will answer the discussion questions and begin writing our conclusion and reflection.

The big idea for today was dew point temperature. Dew point temperature is the temperature at which air can no longer hold any more moisture because it's saturated, so water vapor condenses into a liquid. For more DPT information, click here.

No practice!

Warmer air can hold more water vapor!

Today's learning target was...the student will be able to explain how water vapor exists in the atmosphere.

Today in class...students' received their atmospheric pressure assessment and we discussed the retake policy. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the policy, there are several important things to know...

• Students who do not meet proficiency (lower than a 2.3) are REQUIRED to attend a relearning session. Relearning sessions will occur Tuesday after school with me, Wednesday morning (7:10am) in my room, and Wednesday after school with Ms. Hanson in room 202.



• During these sessions, we will walk through the assessment and address any misunderstandings and discuss the main ideas.



• After students have made the necessary corrections, they will be able to retake a similar assessment at any time on Thursday.

The second part of class we discussed our results from the Modeling Water Vapor activity. We walked though this as a class because the concepts are quite difficult to understand. In addition to the main ideas from our humidity discussion (blog entry Oct 4), we learned that warmer air has the ability to hold more water vapor while colder air holds less water vapor. For more information about water vapor in our atmosphere, click here.

Practice: If you are reading this now, be sure to provide a signature in your student's planner notifying me that you have viewed the blog. I encourage you to bookmark this page so you have the opportunity to view our daily progress in class. Please post a comment if you ever have a question.

It's Not the Heat, It's the Humidity!

Today's learning target was: the student will be able to explain the concept of humidity.

As a class, we decided the following statement summarized the main terms from the reading and explained how they are related:

Water exists in the air as a vapor (gas). Air can only hold a certain amount of water vapor. When the air is holding the maximum amount of water vapor, we say that the air is saturated. If any more water vapor enters the air, it will condense (which means turns into a liquid).

The atmospheric pressure assessment is Thursday (for hours 3 and 4) or Friday (for periods 5, 7, 8). Be sure you are able to explain the main ideas that were discussed in the previous blog entry. Any questions, please ask!!!

Under Pressure!

Today's learning target was...the student will be able to explain the concept of atmospheric pressure.

As a class, we decided on the main ideas...

• Atmospheric pressure is the weight of air molecules
• As altitude increases, atmospheric pressure decreases
• When pressure is low, expect rain or snow; when pressure is high, expect a blue sky; wind blows from highs to lows
• An isobar is a line connecting points of equal atmospheric pressure
• A barometers is a tool used to measure atmospheric pressure

Remember, our assessment will take place this Thursday (3rd and 4th hour) or Friday (5th, 7th, and 8th hour)